Language: English
Cast: Josh Hartnett (Bucky Bleichert), Scarlett Johansson (Kay Lake), Aaron Eckhart (Lee Blanchard), Hilary Swank (Madeleine Linscott), Mia Kirshner (Elizabeth Short), Mike Starr (Russ Millard) and Fiona Shaw (Ramona Linscott).
Producer: Art Linson, Avi Lerner, Moshe Diamant and Rudy Cohen
Director: Brian De Palma
Writing credits: Josh Friedman, based on the novel by James Ellroy (part of the LA Quartet series)
Edited by: Bill Pankow
Music: Mark Isham
Release Date: September 15, 2006
Production House: Universal Pictures
Running Time: 119 minutes
Rating: R




Add sex and crime and some hot actors you have a bestseller add Hollywood to that and you get hot news. The mystery surrounding the unsolved murder of Hollywood starlet, Black Dahlia –Betty Short single handedly sold millions of papers at the time and later helped author James Ellory sell his novels but as a movie – in the kind of colored film-noir style it is taken in the story looses the grip on the audience in the two hours that it runs.

The fans of the stars – Josh Hartnet, Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank will not be disappointed with their looks but will have to agree that their acting needs work. The saving grace of this dark film is the Canadian actress Mia Kirshner who played the warped victim Betty Short. Although appearing in bits, if you excuse the pun on the original Betty’s sawed body, Mia plays the trapped and confused young actress poignantly.

The story revolves around the lives of detectives Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard as they try to unravel the Betty Short case. Their tortures personal lives, the multiple partners and the sordid L.A. life all are spun together by their image of the victim, Betty short’s life. With shades of L.A. Confidential, the other Ellory novel made into film, the movie leaves the viewer less involved than the book engaged its readers.